November 11, 2010 - Edgecam’s extensive range of milling features for roughing components are now included in one special “composite” feature that optimises roughing and reduces tool changes. The new composite feature collects all the features on the part allowing them to be easily roughed in one operation.

Edgecam product manager Simon Mee (shown in the photo to the right) says: “Instead of having to machine individual pockets and features, it now means the user gets a much more complete roughing cycle in one go from Edgecam’s Strategy Manager. It optimises the tool path by reducing the amount of instructions needed.”

This is just one of a number of improvements in the new release of Edgecam 2011 R1.

In the machining simulator, the collision checking function has also been improved. Users can now check the turret, its holders and adjacent tools in the turret. “The operator can make sure they’re not going to hit the component with tools not currently in use. It also means that collision checking can be used to pick the correct tool for the job, ensuring the tool selected is collision free.”

Another improvement on the rough turning cycle is swarf clearance. “With long, deep boring, material can get jammed inside the bore and the machine has to be stopped to clear it out.” The new feature enables the operator to retract the tool automatically after a defined amount of cuts and stop the machine, enabling it to be cleared before continuing with the same cycle. This greatly improves toolpath efficiency.

Improvements in the performance of the machining engine give faster toolpath creation times – in particular the roughing cycle when moving between different areas of the machine parts. “The calculation time is vastly improved,” says Simon Mee.

Another major improvement in Edgecam 2011 R1 is the ability to merge tool stores, including tool, material and job information. “The benefit of this is that small tool stores can now be transferred to different areas in the factory or even to different factories, without having to recreate the data.”

Edgecam 2011 R1 also contains many small but important, “Ease of Use” improvements, which have been asked for by our customers. These include new default schemes, improvements to toolpath display, improved sequence error checking, and more picture-based operations.

Edgecam’s large supported customer base will receive the new release automatically as part of Planit Advantage, its leading support and maintenance package.

About Edgecam

Edgecam, a market leading computer aided manufacturing (CAM) system for NC part programming, offers a complete solution for milling, turning and mill-turn programming with unparalleled ease of use and sophisticated toolpath generation. Edgecam is a brand within the Planit group – recently ranked by CIMdata as the world’s fastest growing CAM vendor, with most industrial users.

Planit is a global supplier of design and manufacturing software for the engineering, woodworking and stone industries. The company provides its customers with products and services that enable them to improve the productivity of their machine tools, shorten design and manufacturing time, optimize material usage and deliver high quality goods and services to their customers. Planit’s solutions are best-in-class within their respective markets and are integral to the success of thousands of companies of every size around the globe.